Last week (15 July 2024) Alcohol Action Ireland drew attention to the continuing efforts of one of the world’s largest alcohol producers, Diageo, to engage our senior politicians in a campaign to ensure their brand, Guinness, is seen as synonymous with Ireland.
On 17 July Tánaiste, Micheál Martin while in Kenya, visited Diageo-owned East African Breweries which is employing technology developed by an Irish company to use bio-mass fuel to make Guinness. The visit was given prominent media coverage along with light-hearted ‘secret sauce’ references to the extra strength Guinness (6.5% as opposed 4.2% in Ireland). On the face of it surely there is no problem in highlighting a greener production method especially when an Irish company is involved? Certainly, Micheál Martin in responding to our concerns called for ‘balance and perspective’. Well, if the media had delved a little deeper and taken a wider perspective, they might have come across multiple problematic environmental issues in relation to all alcohol production including beer. Water usage is just one of these with a pint of beer requiring nearly 300 pints of water to produce, this in a country such as Kenya with significant water shortages. The more environmentally friendly approach is actually to produce less of this product, not more with a greenish tinge.
Beyond this, though, is the issue of politicians yet again normalising alcohol – a drug which according to research cited by the World Health Organisation costs Ireland 2.5% of its GDP – that’s €12 billion annually. It is particularly disappointing that the Tánaiste, as a former health minister with a significant record in public health matters should allow himself to be used in this manner. It is unlikely that he would visit a cigarette factory yet a stopover at a brewery does not evoke the same concern despite all the international evidence indicating that harm from alcohol outstrips all other drugs including tobacco.
Meanwhile, within a few hours of the Kenya visit, Taoiseach Simon Harris and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, were part of a carefully choreographed photo opportunity, toasting improved Anglo-Irish relationship with a pint of the black stuff. Again, there was hugely positive media coverage of the role of the pint and again this product is seen as synonymous with Ireland. This is no accident. As has been seen with multiple visits of dignitaries to Ireland there is an obligatory visit to a pub and the all-important photo-op with a pint of Guinness.
Does this matter? Some media commentators have argued that the sight of a couple of middle-aged men in suits is not going to encourage young people to drink. Probably not, though they are certainly very offensive to the multiple people who have been harmed by alcohol – perhaps the media might ask the opinion of the nearly 1,000,000 adults in Ireland who grew up with alcohol harm in the home.
So why do they happen? Our media outlets are surely not so naïve as to think that these occasions are somehow accidental and not part of a carefully thought-out PR strategy by the alcohol industry. This close linkage of alcohol with important state occasions, the identification of Ireland with this drug and the easy access which Diageo, in particular, has with policy makers, are the key issues.
When Diageo, either directly or through its representatives such as Drinks Ireland, seek access to policy makers they have already been softened up with spin the media often linked to these events, about the supposed importance of its product to the Irish economy. It’s worth noting, though, that alcohol exports account for less than 1% of Ireland’s total exports while what is raised by excise duties is only 10% of the cost of alcohol harm to Ireland.
The alcohol industry knows that by ensuring politicians have been locked into global PR occasions that they will be much more receptive to what the industry really wants – a loosening of the already fairly minimal controls on pricing, marketing and availability of alcohol, i.e. the evidenced based policies that have been shown to reduce alcohol consumption. Drinks Ireland makes no secret of this calling for government engagement with the industry and ‘promotion of education and awareness amongst consumers, not restrictive regulation’.
Are they successful? Well consider this, excise duties have not been increased in a decade so their value has been eroded by at least 15% through inflation making alcohol more affordable and the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 with its modest measures on areas such as advertising has still not been fully implemented nearly six years after it was passed in the Oireachtas.
In a somewhat dismissive response in the Path to Power podcast to AAI’s comments on these issues, Ivan Yates remarked on ‘NGO nonsense’ – a view that could be considered a dog whistle to the far right and their calls to defund NGOs. In the same podcast Matt Cooper advised that we should ‘pick our battles’. AAI’s work is grounded in a strong evidence base and in this case was following guidance from the World Health Organisation particularly in relation to member states avoiding alcohol industry influence on policy makers. This is a key area highlighted in the WHO’s Global Alcohol Action Plan.
What is clear is that many of our politicians and media outlets are under the influence of the industry to the detriment of public health. Calling out the nonsense of this slavish devotion to Ireland’s most costly drug is an essential battleground if we are ever to have balance and perspective on alcohol’s shockingly privileged position in Ireland.
